AIFF 2009 - Animated Films in Competition

There are TEN animated films in competition.  They represent a wide range of styles and topics.  There are two programs (groups of shorts in one showing.)  My advice is to go see both.  Some of the most creative work is done in animation.

Five of the Animated films in competition are in the Program:  It’s A Wild, Wild Life  (there are 19 films in this program)  and seven of the films in competition in this category are in the Program:  Should I Stay or Should I Go? Animation 1  (This program has 18 films altogether)  Three films - Calypso, The Mouse that Soared, and Topi - managed to get into both programs. 


All the showings are at Out North  (3800 Debarr at Primrose - one block west of Bragaw) Though the winner will probably be shown again sometime between Dec. 13-17.  And if last year is a guide,  there will be a slot for a short before many of the feature length films.

These are listed in alphabetically order.  With so many, you might get tired and not get to the bottom.  That would be a big mistake.  Be sure to look at the last ones too.  

There are a similar posts on documentaries in competiton, features in competition, and shorts in competition.  

Burn the Whole Place Down  U.K.    11 minutes

Director: Adam Comiskey
Program:  Should I Stay or Should I Go? Animation 1
Saturday, December 5 – 5:45pm – Out North
Tuesday, December 8 – 7:45pm – Out North

When trapped onboard a container ship with nowhere to run, all the band can do is keep playing.

Picture and interview excerpt below from the BBC:

"There is a misconception computers have made the job easier - they have made it cheaper and quicker. But we still need highly skilled artists to sit and press the buttons and do the long hours," explained Adam
Adam says he has not had a day off since May 2008 - only a power cut late the previous evening stopped the team from working into the early hours of the morning. The determination to get to the final result is what keeps them going.
"It is boring, there are long hours and there has to be something wrong with you to want to do it, quite honestly! But we do do it and we do enjoy it, we always keep our mind on the bigger picture. It's not just about that picture you are drawing - again - it's about working in the team and thinking about the final result at the end.

Calypso  Australia   9 minutes
Director: Jack Parry

(Calypso managed to get into both Animation Programs)

Program:  Should I Stay or Should I Go? Animation 1
Saturday, December 5 – 5:45pm – Out North
Tuesday, December 8 – 7:45pm – Out North
Program:  It’s A Wild, Wild Life
Thursday, December 10 – 5:30pm – Out North 
Sunday, December 13 – 12:45pm – Out North

Photo above, screenshot to the left, and Director's Statement below from Calypso website:

Music talks to me. Whenever I hear an intriguing melody I start to see stories in my head. First they appear as jumbled insights then slowly it all starts to gel and make sense. The first piece of the story of CALYPSO came to me several years ago listening to music in the car. I had been particularly charmed by one piece of music. I had been listening to it over and over again on the way to work when one day without warning the music took a hold of me and shouted its story out loud. I could see it there as clearly as I see it now as a finished film. I felt an absolute release of emotions and by the end I had tears in my eyes. This is not a recommended activity whilst driving in peak hour traffic. The hardest part for me in this film has been trying to imbue in others the rich and magical feelings I have had contained within me for this whole journey. I hope that now the film is finally finished you can all share its story too.

Jack Parry, June 2009

Dried Up  U.S.  6 minutes

Directors: Stuart Bury, Jeremy Casper and Isaiah Powers

Program:  It’s A Wild, Wild Life
Thursday, December 10 – 5:30pm – Out North 
Sunday, December 13 – 12:45pm – Out North


The Dried Up website: has a lengthy discussion of how they made this short.  Six minutes of film after eight months.  Animation is laborious and the section titled Making of Dried Up might help others in the future, or if you're just curious how they did it.

Making Of Dried Up
We learned a lot while making this film and we would like to share those lessons. Hopefully when we catch up on a little more sleep we will be able to piece through the hazy memories and get some stuff updated here.

Like how to build a smooth camera dolly for 30USD. Or why not to use mould making latex for hand construction… or how cardboard and glue can make anything. And how cardboard is free and glue is expensive…

It began:

Dried Up was born out of a stopmotion/building class fall semester of 08. Jeremy and I planed to do a small collaboration project with each other in addition to our final thesis work. For being in an animation program we still grasped hold of that many times elusive naivety of what we could actually accomplish in an 8 month time frame. We now look back and laugh at our selves and our silly ideas.

The video also comes from their website.   Warning - this is the whole short, not just a clip.
Dried Up from Cecil on Vimeo.

Duck [Heart] Teslacoil U.S.  6 minutes
Director: Tyler Kupferer

Program:  It’s A Wild, Wild Life
Thursday, December 10 – 5:30pm – Out North 
Sunday, December 13 – 12:45pm – Out North

A young duck learns how to deal with a bus stop menace through the use of high voltage weaponry.

Photo (SCAD = Savannah College of Art and Design) and text from an interview in Connect Savannah:

What was the genesis of Duck Heart Teslacoil?

Tyler J. Kupferer: It was originally inspired by a piece of vector artwork featuring a monster and a bunny. The instant I saw the flat style, I wondered: “What would that look like animated?” Several months later, while at an ideas pitch session, I thought up the concept of DHT in about five minutes, based on the idea I thought Tesla coils were under–represented in modern cinema. After that, the idea seemed more and more plausible.

In addition to writing, directing and producing the film you also did the animation and provided one of the voices. Between all of those jobs do you have a preference?

Tyler J. Kupferer: Of all the hats I wear when producing my short films, directing is by far my favorite. I think one of the reasons I enjoy directing so much is because I take an interest in all other aspects of production, and directing challenges me to address the unique tasks of each role in a way that must lead to a single cohesive piece. The directing role is what keeps me concentrated on every aspect of storytelling and how it relates to my audience.

Video from digitalheartsawards.  Warning:  This is the whole film, not just a clip.

Duck Heart Teslacoil from Base14 on Vimeo.

Hugo in the Land of Lemonsharks  U.S.   3:20 minutes

 Director: Paxson Woelber
Program:  Should I Stay or Should I Go? Animation 1
Saturday, December 5 – 5:45pm – Out North
Tuesday, December 8 – 7:45pm – Out North

 ALSO in:
Snowdance 3
Saturday, December 5 – 12:30pm – Bear Tooth
Tuesday, December 8 – 5:30pm – Out North

From Presurfer: 

An animation by Paxson Woelber (born in Alaska, currently living in New York). Hugo in the Land of the Lemonsharks is a tale of chivalry, heartache, valor, and, of course, screaming shred guitar.

I would add that the visuals are pretty stunning in this short animation.  You can see some of Paxson's other art work and animation at his website: http://www.paxsonwoelber.com/
where I got this full copy of Hugo. Face shot is from Paxson's Facebook page.
Warning this is the whole thing, not just the trailer.

Hugo in the Land of the Lemonsharks from Paxson Woelber on Vimeo.

Paxson's from Anchorage, so I expect he'll be up here for the festival and he'll probably be available to answer questions after the showing.

See video interview of Paxson in Anchorage.  [coming Dec. 4]

I Slept With Cookie Monster  U.S.  3 minutes

Director: Kara Nasdor-Jones
Program:  Should I Stay or Should I Go? Animation 1
Saturday, December 5 – 5:45pm – Out North
Tuesday, December 8 – 7:45pm – Out North

Kara Nasdor-Jones writes on her beautifully designed blog that she's interested in exploring serious issues using animation because it's unexpected.

"My last project, "I Slept With Cookie Monster," was very much a healing process for me since I began the film while fighting to end the abusive relationship I was in.  Forcing myself to dive into these extremely sensitive issues and visually work through them helped me to understand many critical issues in the healing process."

The video won the Grand Prize For Best Student Animation at the Ottawa International Animation Festival last year.  The video can be seen on her website.  Since it is not embedable,  I'm not posting it here.  It's beautifully done well worth seeing as the Ottawa prize suggests. 




Manifestations   U.S.   4 minutes
Director: Giles Timms
Program:  Should I Stay or Should I Go? Animation 1
Saturday, December 5 – 5:45pm – Out North
Tuesday, December 8 – 7:45pm – Out North

Giles Timms is from Wales, and got his MFA this year at the UCLA  Animation Workshop in the School of Theater, Film and Television. In an interview with channelfrederator,

CF: . . .“Manifestations” is pretty trippy - how did you develop the concept for the film?

GT: “Manifestations” actually started out as a single scene exercise/experiment I set for myself to learn After Effects. Once I had that initial scene and then Ceri’s wonderful music I started to develop the story outward from those two pieces. It really helped me to have Ceri’s music at the very beginning of the project as I was able to listen to the music and create the scenes and story in my head. The whole process though was rather experimental for me and certainly an aspect of the film is very much me trying to push myself as an animator and filmmaker. My process was also a bit unconventional in that I ended up with about 8 minutes of animation that I edited down to 4 minutes  But I learned a lot.

Whole video WARNING.  From his website.

Manifestations from Giles Timms on Vimeo.

The Mouse That Soared U.S.   6 minutes
Director: Kyle Bell
Program:  Should I Stay or Should I Go? Animation 1
Saturday, December 5 – 5:45pm – Out North
Tuesday, December 8 – 7:45pm – Out North

A famous flying circus mouse reflects on his humble beginnings in this high-altitude adventure in aerodynamics.

The Mouse's blog says he won Best Animation screened at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel in the West Hollywood International Film Festival, where "the ghosts of Montgomery Clift and Marilyn Monroe were rumored to be in attendance."   TMTS won 'Best Animation' again at the HollyShorts film Festival and the 'Audience Favorite Animation' award too.  And again at the Malibu Film Festival it won  'Best Animation' and 'Audience Choice Animation'.  We have to assume that in the center of the beast down there in LA, the audience is pretty picky.   So this is one to watch. 

You can get a hint from the trailer from Kyle Bell's YouTube page.  Bell is described as "a veteran filmmaker" and while the student done films are dazzling in one aspect or another, you can see a more completely filled out film here, just in the trailer.  Also check out The Mouse that Soared website.








 Skylight   Canada   5 minutes
Director: David Baas






Program:  It’s A Wild, Wild Life
Thursday, December 10 – 5:30pm – Out North 
Sunday, December 13 – 12:45pm – Out North

 There's a lot of posts online about this film, but what I could find were either basic descriptions of what happens and/or spoilers.  It's called by some a mock documentary on climate change.  Just go see it and enjoy it. 

Topi   U.S.    6 minutes
Director: Arjun Rihan



Program:  It’s A Wild, Wild Life
Thursday, December 10 – 5:30pm – Out North 
Sunday, December 13 – 12:45pm – Out North
Program:  Should I Stay or Should I Go? Animation 1
Saturday, December 5 – 5:45pm – Out North
Tuesday, December 8 – 7:45pm – Out North

From the AIFF description:

Amidst the turbulent partition of India circa 1947, a young Hindu boy has a chance encounter with a stranger.

The film maker's website  is exquisite.  The visuals there from the film are . . . I don't want to say exquisite again, how about 'amazing'?  Go look at the website and come to see this film.  And Arjun will be in the audience with you according to his blog:

Finally, I will be watching the film with an audience for the first time at the Anchorage International Film Festival (Dec 4 - Dec 17) in Alaska (also my first trip to Alaska).

 To whet your appetite, here's something he just put up on his blog:

"A video (created for an award application) that shows the step-by-step progress of two shots. Took forever to resurrect those old files, but it's a nice video to have."

I have a very good feeling about this film. 

To see all the posts on this year's festival you can go to the label (lower right column) Anchorage International Film Festival (AIFF 2009)